Back in July 2018 we partnered with 1% for the Planet – nominating Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) as one of our chosen organisations to contribute to. WEA’s story appealed to us greatly because of their broad work with grass-roots organisations in developing nations. They have implemented 125 women’s environmental and entrepreneurship projects in 18 countries training, funding and catalysing 5000 women to advance safe water, clean energy, regenerative farming, women’s land rights and more. WEA’s model creates cascading benefits through education and life-giving environment solutions. Through WEA’s work, what really resonates with us is how they champion the intersection of female empowerment and tackling environmental impact.
When our team were heading to Cape Town for a campaign shoot recently, we asked WEA if we could visit one of their projects in Kenya to see the amazing impact WEA have had on the ground there.
“Farewelling the ladies of the Kisembe Dispensary we headed to another village around 40 minutes away – a collaboration of four different groups, where we came to learn their stories of the obstacles of every day living and creating an income. Simple things like access to water from a well, over 10kms away, as a daily walk makes creating your own wealth difficult. With WWANC there is access to microloans, which can mean buying a goat to raise and sell, or working at the nursery – which means selling produce at the markets.”
“We had a really rich experience visiting the WWANC team that have been working with WEA since they began, and we’re excited to see how our partnership with WEA really can make an impact on these grass roots organisations,” Lisa said.
The women working on these projects were really aware of environmental impact, which to us is kind of crazy (amazing) as their footprint in comparison to many of us, would be small. The fact that they are all working together for big change is as mind-blowing as it is admirable, particularly given the challenges they face. We’re really looking forward to how our partnership with WEA is going to assist organisations like WWANC to achieve their goals and a betterment to their way of life.